I spent nearly five hours out back yesterday taking down trees and clearing brush around my stand of bamboo, so I’m happy I’ll be doing nothing more strenuous today than pontificating on panels over at Balticon. All that work is necessarily because my bamboo needs more sunlight in order to become the grove I know it has the potential to be. It’s already my favorite spot on our property, not only filling me with peace and joy but also providing a place for me to get lots of writing done.

Yesterday, I discovered I’m not the only one who likes to hang out there.

As I was about to fire up my chainsaw, I happened to glance up and see what I thought was a leaf which had fallen and landed on the head of the statue of Buddha by the bamboo. Then I looked more closely and saw … that was no leaf.

Buddha had a visitor!

I set the chainsaw down, took out my camera, snapped the shot above, and then watched for 15 minutes or so as he sat there motionless. There was a joyous smile on my face the whole time. Then I circled around to the left so I could see him from a better angle.

Eventually, he crawled down from the top of Buddha’s head to take up a new perch. He watched me work for at least an hour, until he grew bored of my antics and crawled inside the stump on which the statue rests.

And now we know who sits at the right hand of the Buddha!